A day earlier than expected, Microsoft has released version 3 of its Flash alternative Silverlight, including a number of related tools to aid in Silverlight development. It comes with a whole lot of new features.

It is exactly as "finished" as proprietary interests have allowed it to be.

This is my point exactly...whenever you are trying to get people to agree (especially companies) and you don't have one entity with the power to make an absolute decision then things start to stagnate. Everyone just has their own best interests at heart.

"It is exactly as "finished" as proprietary interests have allowed it to be.

This is my point exactly...whenever you are trying to get people to agree (especially companies) and you don't have one entity with the power to make an absolute decision then things start to stagnate. Everyone just has their own best interests at heart. "

I'm hoping that the internet "audience" may in fact end up vetoing the veto (as it were) of the self-interested companies that have tried to stop HTML5/Theora.

No company, or group of companies, can be allowed to control which devices and platforms can render rich web content.

I'm betting that user demand will see the companies recalcitrance off eventually. It will be either: provide the open web, or don't be a player.

I'm hoping that the internet "audience" may in fact end up vetoing the veto (as it were) of the self-interested companies that have tried to stop HTML5/Theora.

No company, or group of companies, can be allowed to control which devices and platforms can render rich web content.

I'm betting that user demand will see the companies recalcitrance off eventually. It will be either: provide the open web, or don't be a player.

Honestly, I hope so...if there were true standards that companies actually followed then it would make my job easier and make web development more fun. I enjoy my job for the most part...I just get sick of all the tweaks that go into making a site work on all of the major browsers. Although, IE8 has made this quite a bit easier...unfortunately we generally have to support IE6/7 as well.

And I would like to point out, that I have found this discussion really interesting and I hope you haven't felt personally attacked or anything. Its just something that I feel somewhat more personally involved in because this is the sort of stuff that I spend most of my days dealing with.